Passionfruit newsletter: BookTok’s hockey smut sexualization problem

Ah, BookTok. A place heralded as a safe haven for young female readers—both feminist and not-so-feminist. It’s a place for some to connect over the revolutionary musings of Bell Hooks and Audre Lorde. A place to be a self-aware Sally Rooney sad girl, an unhinged satirical “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” fleabag, a Joan Didion/Eve Babitz baddie.

And of course, a place to read smut. Smutty, smutted-up, hetero smut-smut. Cue female-fellatio-laden sex scenes, the “manhood” of a dashing gentleman entering the virginal “cradle of femininity” under candlelight. Enter unhealthily hot, rich, baller bad boys, beefcakes who miraculously turn from hating your guts to becoming “completely and perfectly and incandescently happy” with you, sexed-up sugar daddies, meat-shield white knights, etc, etc.

In this particular corner of BookTok, there lies an erotic dreamscape for a straight woman’s most debaucherous patriarchal desires. After centuries of beheadings, burnings at the stake, pariah-ing, and female objectification under the guise of purity culture, it’s only natural women would want to swing the sexualization pendulum back at men.

And now, this corner of BookTok has collided with… hockey, of all things. You heard me right, Hockey. Apparently, hockey teams are cashing in on a niche group of women who love to read and write about being “pucked” by hockey players. ...

– Grace Stanley, Newsletter Editor

In Today’s Newsletter:

• The ‘Kids Online Safety Act’ Won’t Protect Every Minor
• Here’s How Matt Cullen’s ‘Our Queer Life’ YouTube Series Caught On
• Passive Income 101 For Creators
• YouTube Star MrBeast's Lawsuit Against Former Business Partner
• There's a New Influencer Boxing Match in Town

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